Poll shows Carter widening lead over Deal

ATLANTA - An exclusive Channel 2 Action News poll indicates if the election were held today, Georgia could have a new governor.

The poll conducted by Landmark Communications on July 15 found Democratic challenger Jason Carter with a seven-point lead over Republican incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal.

Carter received 48.7 percent in the poll and Deal received 41.3 percent. Libertarian Andew Hunt received 4 percent of the vote in the poll. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.

The poll comes just after new developments in the ethics investigation into Deal, and it could have cost him support according to Channel 2 political analyst Bill Crane.

“This is definite cause for pause and concern for a governor who probably a year ago didn’t have any serious Democrats who were running and now obviously are in a position to knock him out of his seat,” Crane told Channel 2’s Lori Geary.

Deal has a nine-point lead in men but women support Carter by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

“If you’ve got the largest voting block, which is women, (about) 55 percent, depending on who shows up, breaking off 15 to 20 percent, that puts everything in play. It certainly should be giving a lot of pachyderms a lot of sleepless nights,” Crane said.

The poll also shows Carter with a large lead among African-American voters and voters under age 40.

Voters who claimed to be Independent are split 38 percent to 38 percent in the race.